February 04, 2014

Epstein's "Rand Paul Problem"

"I consider myself a proponent of limited government," writes Richard Epstein in his most recent Defining Ideas column. "So does Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has moved the term 'libertarian' to the fore of our national political debates. In a recent New York Times analysis, 'Rand Paul’s Mixed Inheritance,' Sam Tanenhaus and Jim Rutenberg treat him as today’s exemplar of libertarian thought. But Paul’s ideology is a far cry from classical liberalism, which is conceptually and politically superior to hard-line libertarianism."